The Anagnorisis Pattern
Description: various auditory and visual artifacts, generally distributed via social media. To most of the mundane population, any one item that qualifies as an ‘Anagnorisis Pattern’ will appear to be interesting, but ultimately not engrossing. Alas, those susceptible to the Pattern will instead find it irresistible, and at least psychologically addictive.
Effects: exposure to the Anagnorisis Pattern seems to encourage a particular kind of weak-willed subservience in some people. Even brief exposure makes the susceptible inclined to obey anyone who incorporates elements of the Pattern in their dress, conversation, ideology, and/or iconography. Prolonged exposure accelerates the process, and encourages a certain reckless disregard for personal safety. Anybody’s personal safety, really.
Well, at least most people aren’t actually affected by the Anagnorisis Pattern. It’s a really low percentage: possibly one in every hundred thousand, although it does seem that the susceptibility runs in families. Unfortunately, the people who are susceptible invariably turn out to be perfect for Dark Cults, which is why the Pattern keeps briefly showing up on the Internet. Very briefly: sites that host the Pattern have a remarkable tendency to go down permanently, shortly thereafter. And sometimes it’s because the servers were set on actual fire.
It’s important to understand that exposure to the Pattern doesn’t make people dumb, or even weak-willed in other contexts. It just makes them fanatics for whatever cults are using elements of the Anagnorisis Pattern to control their minions. And they’re not mindless fanatics, either. They’ll throw their lives away, but they’ll throw them away effectively.
It’s that sort of efficient corruption that makes the Pattern so valuable to cults, and such a priority to suppress for organizations that fight cults. There’s also the minor problem that the best method that anybody’s ever come up with to cure somebody susceptible to the Anagnorisis Pattern is, well, trepanning. Which works! But the side effects are awful.
The worst thing about the Anagnorisis Pattern, though? There’s no indication that it was ever deliberately constructed. It’s just this odd quirk where space-time meets tangible metaphysics. Not even demons or other organized Evil-aligned entities really know where the Pattern originated from; and some of them quietly worry about that.